


Is something burning?

by FuryBeam136



Series: Whumptober 2020 but bad [14]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Whumptober, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:41:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27155386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuryBeam136/pseuds/FuryBeam136
Summary: Whumptober 2020 day 14Prompt: Branding |Heat exhaustion| Fire
Series: Whumptober 2020 but bad [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951480
Kudos: 21





	Is something burning?

He reaches Asphodel for the first time and is immediately hit by the heat, the smoke. He was not expecting it to be quite this hot. Although maybe he should have been.

He presses on through the heat of the fiery plains, feeling how it radiates off the Phlegethon in vicious, relentless waves. His father’s wretches aren’t giving him a break either, in fact, Asphodel seems more tightly guarded than Tartarus.

He’s only a few chambers in when the combination of exertion and heat has him sweating more than he thinks he’s ever sweated in his life. Not that it matters. He’s going to have to deal with a lot to reach the surface. A little sweat is nothing. He presses on.

The heat blurs and bleeds into the air, ripples with each motion he makes. Varatha moves as if through water in his hands, he feels sluggish. How long has it been since he arrived in Asphodel? How far is he from the surface? His heart is racing, and the rest of him can’t keep up. He trips over his own feet and hits the ground hard.

He doesn’t find he has the strength to get up. He lies in a fiery chamber somewhere in Asphodel, and he does not know if anyone will ever find him. This is an awful way to die, he decides. Arguably the worst yet. He feels sick. Maybe if he crawls into the lava he will die quicker. And he can take some water next time. Maybe that will keep him from dying from Asphodel’s hellish heat.

Oh, he has that trinket from Poseidon. He’ll take that. Maybe the god of the sea can protect him from Asphodel’s ash and flame. And if he can’t, well, that’s a problem for future Zagreus. Present Zagreus’ problem is lying in Asphodel, face down on the ashy islands between the Phlegethon’s popping, boiling lava and wondering if it’s less painful to throw himself into it than to lie here.

Everything is spinning. It’s nauseating. The Phlegethon’s bubbling surface circles in a painfully bright spiral around him. He closes his eyes, and somehow manages to roll onto his back and throw an arm over his face. His head is pounding in time with his racing heart, the Phlegethon’s dizzy spiral burned into his eyes not helping in the slightest.

He decides that maybe the Phlegethon is the way to go, after all.

As soon as he comes to this conclusion, he loses consciousness.


End file.
